Message from Athletic Director

MESSAGE FROM THE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

As we enter the new academic year and the challenges that may present themselves, I take great pleasure in welcoming all new student athletes to the department. I know the feeling of apprehension that can accompany you as you make the bold move to college. Fear Not, the Athletic Department will be your guide. We will form the nucleus of change when we combine efforts with those who have walked the path before us and are standing ready to create a year of not just being competitive but one of athletic dominance. Last year, our Track & Field programme led the way in Intercol Sport lifting both the male and female titles, then culminating with a championship of American title at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia USA. We intend to build on such performance for this year of competitions.

To our returning student athletes, let us continue to be a cohesive department and strive to improve all areas that need strengthening in 2019/20 as the G.C. Foster Lions can realize its full potential.

This year we will see the addition of a Research and Testing Lab to the department, which will benefit not just our college athletes but also the wider Jamaica sporting fraternity.

Over the past year, the college garnered huge support from the business community and individual sponsors; as a department, we must express our appreciation for such support and crave their partnership once more for Jamaica’s next set of great athletes.

To the Board of Management, and the Principal, the Athletic Department gives its personal mandate to add value to all sport we participate in, whether at the intercollegiate or club level. Once again, I implore all to embrace the changes that will come as the department remains committed to the vision and mission of the college and stand ready to assist all in making what is good even better.

Chester McCarthy

Athletic Director G.C. Foster College of Physical Education & Sport

landline: (876) 619-1099 / (876) 619-1102

Cel: (876) 552-0686

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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G.C. Foster College embarked on an initiative to offer support to the community during this time of crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 13, 2020, care packages were distributed to members of the surrounding community who have exhibited a need and would have benefitted from the College’s support over the years. The G.C. Foster College continues to shine as a beacon of light, not only through physical education and sport, but through supporting the community.

It’s clear that the athletics family wants to be ready to speed as soon as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is brought under control. That’s what the promise of late-season meets, locally and internationally, convey to me. The same goes for the possible staging of national championships in August.

As suggested by Sprintec Track Club founder and head coach Maurice Wilson a few weeks ago, it seems that the sport can ill afford to be absent when the coast is clear.

“I don’t think we have the luxury in track and field not to be connecting with the public for almost one year,” Wilson said. “The sport has been losing marketability over a period of time and I believe, in a year where persons are, if I should use the word, sports thirsty, it is an opportune time for us to, later on in the year, have some very competitive matchups, having persons who don’t normally race each other racing each other to generate back the public interest.”

These signals give all the stakeholders some hope. While they wait for a light at the end of this tunnel and daily reports of tragedy and recovery, some plough through cassette tapes and videodiscs and YouTube to get a taste of their favourite sport.

Others have given up and amuse themselves with mathematical brain puzzles.

The only real option is patience. Though there has been steady anti-COVID-19 action in Jamaica and elsewhere, the light at the end of the tunnel could be a way off. Schools have yet to complete the Easter term. The longer they must stay closed, the more it becomes likely that the school year will end many weeks past the usual date early in July.

We’ve already seen the shift of the 2020 Olympic Games into 2021 and it would be great if the world became healthy enough for sport to kick back into gear before the New Year. The reality is that, though we’d all love to have special compact version of the Diamond League and the completion of the English Premier League, any resumption date set now is provisional.

Every energy has to be devoted to keeping everyone healthy.

In the meantime, sport can be used as a powerful beacon of hope. Last weekend, World Athletics posted 10 inspiring stories on its website. One of them detailed the patience and determination of Merlene Ottey to become an individual outdoor World Champion. She made it in 1993 at the World Championship in Stuttgart, Germany. Even there, she faced adversity. She lost the 100m to Olympic champion Gail Devers by a smidgen as both got the same time – 10.82 seconds. Then, she barely held off another Olympic gold medallist, Gwen Torrence, to take the 200m.

She was 33 then, and many thought she should have already put her spikes away. Instead, she persevered and became Jamaica’s first World Champion at 200m, male or female.

Jamaicans everywhere will have to call on Ottey’s determination and discipline to drive this health challenge away. She didn’t give up and neither should we.

This interlude without sport is many things. It’s time to reflect. It’s time to look ahead, to cultivate new habits and to refresh old methods.

It’s definitely not time to give up.

Hubert Lawrence has scrutinised local and international track and field athletics since 1980.

G.C. Foster College is now accepting applications for the Free ICT Technical Support Programme for January 2020. This programme is offered jointly by the Vocational Training Development Institute (VTDI) and NCTVET. Participants will be trained and certified to work in the growing BPO Sector.